KI 2021 Season

[mikejenkins1]

Do you think they and other Cedar Fair parks will go back to reservations for visiting the park?

I have gone this past year when it was in place and when it wasnt.

I preferred the reservations...

[IndyGuy4KI]

I would say not if they can avoid it. The extra step of making a reservation possibly slows down ticket sales.

[jsus]

It's much too early to speculate on that, IMO.  Like @IndyGuy4KI hinted at, requiring advanced reservations is likely to discourage guests, both passholders and daily ticket holders, from visiting.  The park wants every bit of reduced capacity filled if possible; it's a business, after all.

The reasons for the reservation system in the first place was to ensure that they didn't have more people show up than the park could handle under pandemic capacity restrictions.  The arrival time windows were to prevent a large gathering outside of the gate of people waiting to go through the health and security theatrics.  The latter was relatively quickly abandoned based on data showing people continued to show up staggered throughout the day.  (They do have historical data that shows trends of how many show up at open and each hour thereafter, from many years of operations).

A museum near me has its own outdoor "village" component to it.  When it reopened, both venues required advanced reservations, even for members.  After a bit, they learned about the visitor habits and started easing up.  Members didn't need to make a reservation for the museum, then the public didn't, for summer, while they were still required for the village.  Once fall set in and people wanted to spend more time inside, they dropped the village reservations but reinstated them for the museum.

So there's a lot of that currently up in the air.  What will the park capacity cap look like in 2021?  Will they need to stick to 50%, can they go up to 75% or 100%?  That's affected by a variety of things, but mainly how quickly the situation can change.  There's apparently a more contagious strain of COVID-19 going around that's been confirmed in the US.  There are also two vaccines currently being rolled out with more in development.

If the pandemic is under control and we start building enough herd immunity through vaccines, well, that'll help reduce the risks of large crowds like tend to happen at amusement/theme parks, thus perhaps allowing higher capacity.

Of course, if the pandemic does start to die down, many people who were unable to travel and partake in public entertainment will have pent-up demand, which could itself be the key reason the reservation system comes back.

All this goes to say that it depends on how things progress.  The park wants to get as many guests through the gate and into the shops, restaurants, and games as it can.  Reservation systems by design keep guests away, something they will avoid unless necessary to comply with health and safety guidelines.

[SnakePlissken]

Here is my 2 cents. I had to make a reservation for Taste of the Season at Carowinds and was only allowed one at a time. If I had been able to book more than one day in advance I likely would have went for two. Or if I had known the on site hotel had guaranteed entry to the park I would have booked there and gotten my 2 reservations that way. I did buy a tasting pass and several beers so  that combined with the hotel revenue is maybe lost money on day two but another guest may have made up for it anyways.

On the other hand I was able to make reservations for Dollywood way out in advance for 3 days in a row. Which I did due to not knowing what the weather would be that far out. Or knowing Carowinds calendar or weather. I ended up not using my first Dollywood reservation and used day 2 and 3. I'm sure lots of other people did the same and just did not show up on certain days. My Sunday visit had less people in the park than Sat did. Yet both days hit the cap and they put their usual facebook message up about not letting non reservation holders in at park opening.

[jimlaheyscar]

On 12/30/2020 at 8:51 AM, mikejenkins1 said:

 

I preferred the reservations...

Why?  What difference did it make other than adding another step and discourage people from going?  Cedar Point seemed to be the only park that really needed reservations outside the first week or two.  Then again, maybe that added step took care of discouraging enough that they didn't hit cap.

 

 

[ApocalypticTragedy]

I prefer not having to make a reservation, mostly because most days during the season, as long as we have passes, we just go spur the moment.

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[alsoran]

I have asked, as I have not seen any accused outbreaks from any amusement parks, so why not open?  Keep the social distancing places, and masks as needed, but open the parks up.  Those that don't feel safe, stay home, don't complain that others are going.  Those that feel safe, go spend money, help the economy, have a good time and live life, before it is taken from you.

[Vortex]

7 hours ago, alsoran said:

I have asked, as I have not seen any accused outbreaks from any amusement parks, so why not open?  Keep the social distancing places, and masks as needed, but open the parks up.  Those that don't feel safe, stay home, don't complain that others are going.  Those that feel safe, go spend money, help the economy, have a good time and live life, before it is taken from you.

I am sure the governments are the ones telling them half capacity. 

[alsoran]

14 hours ago, Vortex said:

I am sure the governments are the ones telling them half capacity. 

I am sure it is the government, the ones who have shut down several businesses and caused many to lose everything they have, while they go out and live life like nothing has happened.  At least that is what we are seeing Newsom doing.  Now, they want to help with giving the American people $600 to help them, while Billions are going overseas.  I see this as an issue.  How can the people speak up and force the openings of different places?  With no known outbreaks linked to amusement or theme parks, why are we limiting the capacity?  

[jsus]

22 minutes ago, alsoran said:

With no known outbreaks linked to amusement or theme parks, why are we limiting the capacity?  

To paraphrase, with the preventative measures we're taking appearing to be highly effective, why don't we just throw them out with both the baby and the bathwater? 

You're also lumping the actions of many somewhat independent governments into one evil "the government".  Michigan is taking different actions than Ohio, such as not implementing a COVID-19-only-comes-out-at-night curfew, for example.

[silver2005]

With the 2020 passes being good for 2021, is there anything said 2020 passholders have to do or are the passes just good from the get-go?

[jsus]

3 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

With the 2020 passes being good for 2021, is there anything said 2020 passholders have to do or are the passes just good from the get-go?

Just make sure your payment plan (if applicable) is up to date.  All eligible 2020 Cedar Fair passes are to simply keep working in 2021 with the same features and benefits (including add-ons, e.g. dining).

Quote

Source: https://www.visitkingsisland.com/park-update

How does the closure impact my 2020 Season Pass and 2020 Season Pass Add-Ons (if applicable)?

• 2020 Season Passes and 2020 Season Pass Add-Ons (if applicable) Valid Through the 2021 Season
• 2020 Season Passes and purchased 2020 Season Pass Add-On Products (if applicable) will be valid for the remainder of 2020 when the park opens. Additionally, 2020 Regular, Gold and Platinum Season Passes (as well as purchased 2020 Season Pass Add-On Products) will be extended through the 2021 Season, according to your pass type.

What do I need to do to get my season pass extended?

• Your payments must be in good standing for the Season Pass to be extended through 2021.
• No other action is required from you.

 

[jsus]

Further point of clarification - if a park did not open in 2020 and has not yet resumed billing on payment plans, you're still considered up-to-date.  If, say, you have a Platinum Pass from Canada's Wonderland, your payment plan has been frozen since April 15.  It was valid for use at the parks that did open this year (e.g. KI, CP), and you don't have to resume payments until some date announced by the park in the future.

[SnakePlissken]

2 hours ago, jsus said:

Further point of clarification - if a park did not open in 2020 and has not yet resumed billing on payment plans, you're still considered up-to-date.  If, say, you have a Platinum Pass from Canada's Wonderland, your payment plan has been frozen since April 15.  It was valid for use at the parks that did open this year (e.g. KI, CP), and you don't have to resume payments until some date announced by the park in the future.

I did not exactly find this part fair. when King's Island opened back up they collected all frozen missed payments at once yet somebody who bought a pass at a park that did not open could visit and still has not had to pay anything since the payments were frozen.I think if you were gold then collecting payments when your home park opened is fair but platinum pass holders should have all been treated equally.

[jsus]

7 minutes ago, SnakePlissken said:

I did not exactly find this part fair. when King's Island opened back up they collected all frozen missed payments at once yet somebody who bought a pass at a park that did not open could visit and still has not had to pay anything since the payments were frozen.I think if you were gold then collecting payments when your home park opened is fair but platinum pass holders should have all been treated equally.

It's really not that simple.

Keep in mind that the intended target for a Platinum Pass from a given park is guests who will use that park as their primary or "home" park.  Platinum Passes sold by Canada's Wonderland, then, would be intended (but not exclusively) sold to Ontario residents.  It's basically a loophole for a US citizen to buy a Platinum Pass online from CW without visiting the park, gaming the exchange rate.  With the US-Canadian border, closed, it's not like an Ontario resident could visit KI or CP, for instance, and there are no other CFEC parks in Canada.  So why keep billing when the actual number of pass uses in US parks was likely quite low anyway?

If you lived near, say, Knott's Berry Farm which did not reopen after March 14, and had a Platinum Pass from KBF, there isn't another park anywhere nearby you could've used it.  The closest park, California's Great America, is over 5.5 hours away and did not open in 2020.

It's hard to treat all Platinum Passholders equally when the nature of this pandemic means they aren't equally able to use their passes.

[BoddaH1994]

...plus they SHOULD have kept charging since it’s towards a balance, not a subscription and they already said the passes were good in ‘21 too. Every park except maybe the ones in California should open next year, likely even on time. 
 

The PR reason they did this was because they were helping out people during the pandemic financially. But since this is a business, not a charity I think it’s clear that they would spend their days dealing with phone calls of people asking for refunds and (perhaps rightfully) contested credit card transactions. 
 

All in all, last year was a meh year and even if 21 is a meh year then two meh years for the price of a good year is a decent trade, I suppose. 

[jsus]

39 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

The PR reason they did this was because they were helping out people during the pandemic financially. But since this is a business, not a charity I think it’s clear that they would spend their days dealing with phone calls of people asking for refunds and (perhaps rightfully) contested credit card transactions. 

The payment plan was for an experience that was not possible per the passholder's expectations at time of purchase.  Yes, some parks did open in 2020 in a limited capacity, but it was nowhere near the same length of season, operating hours, or experience when in the park.  For a variety of reasons, many passholders were unable to or otherwise chose not to use their passes in 2020 due to health and safety concerns.

Due to pandemic-induced financial constraints, I have to imagine there would have been a substantial number of passholders electing to default on their payment plans as well.  When you're unemployed, paying Cedar Fair for a pass you can't use isn't exactly a high priority.  By pausing payment plans and extending 2020 passes thru 2021, they get not only PR but a better chance at actually collecting on those payment plans and (hopefully) fewer guests demanding refunds.  Plus, it may prove beneficial with a boost in in-park per cap spending.

Indeed, it's a business, not a charity, and as a business that's looking to increase its passholder base, treating them well in a crisis will go a long way in that regard.